Onondaga Cave (2)

/

Onondaga Cave is a wet cave. That means many of the formations are still active and the air in the cave is very moist. There is an airlock where the tour begins and ends. There are salamanders in the cave, but their numbers have declined with the bats (White Nose Syndrome); the salamanders eat the bat droppings and there are not enough to sustain as many salamanders and before. We didn’t manage to see any.

There is a river that runs through the cave. At one point you can hear the water moving but when you look at it from above it seems very still! They know where the water goes but not where it comes from!

On the way home we stopped at Bennett Spring State Park near Lebanon MO. It was raining so the only picture I took was of a painted glass window! We drove down to where the spring emerges and then back to I-44 along a road through the forest….lots of dogwoods in bloom in the understory. It was a grand finale to the day trip even with the rain!

Learning about Missouri Geology – April 2025

/

In late March – after the monthly Missouri Geology post, my daughter and I visited Cedar Gap Conservation Area. I posted about the vegetation (spring wildflowers) and the tail itself here and saved the ‘rock’ pictures for this post. Most of the pictures are from along the trail.

The most interesting rock of the trip was found down near the stream by my daughter; I’m not sure how she found it in the jumble of rocks!

The geology lab for Missouri Master Naturalists that was a follow up to the geology program I’d arranged for last February focused on minerals. There were 8 sets of trays with a total of 24 minerals and we practiced the process to identify them! It was a learning experience. I realized that there might have been a better class for learning to id rocks and minerals than the geology course I am taking….and it is for educators (not sure that non-degree seeking students can take it).

Last week my daughter and I visited Onondaga Cave and Bennett Springs State Park….I’ll be posting about that trip soon. Both had a geology component too.